Sometimes It's Better To 'Keep Your Mouth Shut'

As of late, the editorials have been full of the very overworked phrase "respect his/her right to express their opinion" but have you noticed, they don't really mean it?

Being raised in the south, I was taught that there was no excuse for bad manners, save bad breeding. I was also taught to listen to some poor individual prattle on about something they had limited knowledge of, and to maintain a polite interest while doing so. Taught also, that if the subject matter was pointless, then any response could extend the rhetoric and there were times that one fares better by just "keeping your mouth shut."

Some of the letters as of late are full of "rebuttals" to those who have used their "right to express an opinion" and you can tell by the wording the original author is upset that someone voice an opinion that is contrary to their own. Odd isn't it?

Somewhat like the local council meetings ... We have elected these folk to do a job, and it matters not if you voted for an individual or not, they are in the position. Yet some of our adult citizens conduct themselves like fifth graders, and when they voice an "opinion," Lord help anyone who has another "opinion."

Truth is a fleeting thing. It gets in the way of some folks' desire to make a point. It is so simple to add or subtract a word, change the tone, move, add or subtract quotation marks, and still find those who get upset at the word "Liar." It isn't "exactly" th etruth. What then is it?

I was a carpenter's "gofer" at a very young age, and worked with an elderly black man in 1958, who gave me three "commandments" with which I have fashioned my life. This one I will share with whomever wishes to accept it: "There are few real adults in this world, boy, but there are a lot of old children."